Scrap It Up

There's something to be said about being around my people.

 

Yes, I have people. (I'll give you a moment to laugh.)

 

OK... now did you hear me saying it with a snooty accent and my nose raised? If not, I'll give you another minute.

 

So who are my people? Well, to be honest, I feel like I'm a bit on the fringes of my people. I'm not as addicted as some nor am I as creative as others. Regardless, scrapbookers are awesome.

 

Yes, this hardcore, tough girl who loves football and rum likes to scrapbook. And I have for years. I got started after a girl's whirlwind trip around Europe during college. It basically was just a bunch of maps and ticket stubs grouped with some photos, but it got me hooked. However, I didn't really start getting into it until I met Puff. Ah ha! He's the reason I scrapbook! So there bucko - now you can't fault me for my scrapbook spending! (In reality, that was just the time when digital photography got super cool and therefore, expensive and unnecssary to print every picture.) So, my decision was to make a scrapbook for each year, highlighting the highlights.

 

I started the first annual book in 2008, and have subsequently cut and removed any photos that contained the ex in the first month of that year. By the end of the year, the book was HUGE. All those trips to the mountains and fantasy dates with Puff yielded a lot of mementos. By 2009, I knew how to scale back on the main book... and made separate books for my 2008 cruise and my 2009 trip to Ireland. 2010 yielded even more with a honeymoon book and a wedding one too. Yes, you can feel free to judge, but when I am sitting in my rocking chair on my front porch in 40 years, I'll be super happy I have them to flip through while you don't! (Don't worry, I'll share. You can look back at my life with me. As long as you don't leave any dirty or sticky fingerprints.)

 

But back to "my people." I stopped at a scrapbook store recently to pick up a few sheets of fun paper and the ladies in there were NUTS. Fantastically, wonderfully nutty. They were comparing notes and techniques and talking about crinkling paper and then hand-dying it. Wow... I'm lucky to even own scissors that cut funky lines! Yes, I do wish that all my pages were super cool and fun like this:

 

 

or this:

 

 

 

But they're much more tame. I'm still all about cutting and pasting some maps and embellishing with a ripped ticket stub. Hey, they might not have THAT character, but they've got their own style. And until I grow tired of the effort, I'm sticking with it. Just don't expect me to sit around a table in a back room of a store with "my people."

 

Those people are weird.